Land bill: Government indicates working on regional parties' support

Sonepat: Government on Wednesday indicated that it is working on the support of regional parties for the passage of the controversial land bill in Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA lacks numbers as there was no sign of let up in Congress' opposition to the law.

"You see how we passed the three other bills," Rural Development Minister Birender Singh said referring to the passage of bills on insurance, coal and mines and minerals to replace the ordinances on the same.

While on insurance, Congress was on board with Left strongly opposing the government, the other two bills were passed in Rajya Sabha even as Congress opposed but some regional parties helped the government.

Singh's remarks have come among indications that the Narendra Modi government is attempting to work out support of regional outfits to overcome numbers posed by bigger parties like Congress and the Left.

The minister also hit out at Congress President Sonia Gandhi for her strident opposition to the land bill, saying it is "pure politics".

"The Prime Minister has said and so have I at least six times that government is open to good suggestions in the interest of farmers. But Congress says it is a closed chapter. It is pure politics," said Singh, a former Congressman who joined the BJP at the time of Haryana Assembly polls last year and became a Union minister.

He felt that the insistence of continuing with 80 per cent consent of farmers for acquiring land is "purely political".

Singh downplayed his previous remarks in Chandigarh that the consent clause, which was done away with in the ordinance can be revisited with somewhat reduced percentage of 50-60 per cent from the earlier mandatory consent of 70 to 80 per cent of farmers for acquiring land.

He insisted that the ordinance to be re-issued will only have the nine amendments incorporated in the bill that was passed in Lok Sabha to replace the executive order in the first half of the Budget Session.

"Right now here we are. The rest will be thought of later when we bring the bill in Lok Sabha. Right now the decision is ensure that the ordinance continues even after April 5," he said, adding that otherwise the benefits of compensation and relief under the new law will not be available to farmers whose land is acquired under 13 other laws.

Singh also found nothing incongruous in the government involving Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in place of him to communicate with Opposition on the land bill saying that this is because the process on the bill in the NDA government had started when Gadkari was Rural Development Minister.

He suggested that this is also because as Rural Development Minister whatever he says will be authoritative view of the government and hence some other minister will be involved at the negotiation stage.